Saturday: Toro Rosso shows its limits in qualifying
After an encouraging Free Practice 3, despite the session being cut short by a spin for Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso was unable to replicate its morning performance in qualifying, with Sebastien Buemi having to settle for 16th place, just ahead of his teammate who will have an extra set of new tires for the race.
Sebastien Buemi – 10th and 16th
« It’s difficult to understand why we are so far behind. I would say that this morning the track was faster for us, and I’m not sure why I couldn’t set the same time this afternoon. Maybe it’s because of the rising temperatures, as we seemed to have lost grip. Despite being disappointed with this qualifying session, I think we could have done better and perhaps even been higher on the grid, given that a tenth of a second made a big difference. Let’s wait and see tomorrow, as there are apparently chances of rain that could change everything. »
Jaime Alguersuari – 17th and 17th
« All things considered, it’s not such a bad result. At least we saved a set of new tires for tomorrow’s race, which is a positive point. Maybe we could have improved the car’s balance with another setup, given that the conditions changed a lot between this morning and this afternoon. I didn’t drive much this morning, which obviously didn’t help. But I’m staying positive and hope to have a good race tomorrow, since we have enough tires for it, so let’s wait and see what will happen. »
Giorgio Ascanelli
This result doesn’t surprise me: the gaps were very tight among the midfield teams. Nevertheless, I don’t understand why we didn’t improve our times from this morning, but we can assume that the rise in temperatures altered the car’s balance. Jaime hasn’t had it easy so far, and we’ve had to drastically change his settings between yesterday and today: we were better but not enough, and he lost time with his spin [in Free Practice 3]. Sébastien seemed a bit better this morning, but we already knew Williams had made some progress. We came here with a few new elements, but it wasn’t enough. In Q2, we didn’t want to put all our eggs in one basket, so while Seb tried on a second run to see if he could improve his performance, with Jaime we decided to keep a set of fresh tires for tomorrow’s race. Given the result, it seems that Jaime managed better in that regard.
